The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company (Western & Southern Life) joined the American Financial Exchange (AFX), becoming the first insurance company to join and trade on the Exchange.
AFX is an electronic exchange for direct interbank lending and borrowing for American financial institutions.
AFX also announced a record day of trading on April 17, with $798 million transacted on the platform.
AFX was originally designed to serve the lending and borrowing needs of U.S. small- and midsize banks, but it is now also expanding into larger banks and non-bank financial institutions such as insurance companies, broker-dealers, private equity firms, futures commission merchants and asset managers. Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe) operates the web-accessible, secure, electronic trade matching engine and supports surveillance and membership services.
AFX is an important addition to the short and future long-term investment needs of an insurance company.
“AFX is an important addition to the short and future long-term investment needs of an insurance company,” said John F. Barrett, chairman, president and CEO, Western & Southern Financial Group, the parent company of Western & Southern Life. “Transparency and ease of access that AFX brings are important tools, and we are very excited to be the first insurer to join the Exchange.”
“Western & Southern Life is a recognized leader in the insurance sector. We are delighted to welcome them to the Exchange,” said Dr. Richard L. Sandor, chairman and CEO of AFX. “A transparent, regulated and rules-based platform such as AFX can be of enormous benefit to the insurance sector and other financial firms around the country.”
Since AFX opened on December 11, 2015, membership has grown from six banks to 86 institutions (74 banks and 12 non-banks) as of April 17, 2018, representing over $1.1 trillion in assets. AFX has a presence in 48 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Current active AFX markets are overnight unsecured loans, 7-day secured loans and a Deposit product. AFX facilitates the determination of Ameribor®, a transaction-based interest rate benchmark for financial institutions via its electronic trading platform. AFX publishes its Ameribor rate on the website ameribor.net. Since opening, more than $135 billion cumulative has been successfully transacted.
